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chuckroZoey works at a tech startup and generally glides through life unawares. When her father develops a degenerative disorder, she goes to get checked for it and a magic combination of MRI and earthquake gives her the power to read people’s emotions as big song-and-dance numbers. Hilarity ensues.
This has a Glee vibe though with a much more even feel (they waver between comedy and feel-good emotional drama, but without the insanity or black comedy Glee didn’t know when to stop). Included in the cast are Pitch Perfect alum Skylar Astin, Glee alum Alex Newell, Lauren Graham, and apparently Mandy Moore is doing the choreography. While they lack the sheer vocal power Glee could bring to bear (as is the case when half your cast is 50+, rather than 20-somethings cast as teenagers), they do a solid job. (And they did get Bernadette Peters for one episode, which was weird for me because I know her voice but only recognize her from ~40 feet away.)
90% of Lauren Graham’s scenes make me think she shadowed a former boss of mine to prepare for the role, because honestly there’s a stock “high-power businesswoman in a male-dominated field” stereotype that is totally grounded in reality. The other 90%, mind you, make me think Lorelai Gilmore’s life took a turn--she talks about her mother’s funeral at one point, and my brain, despite knowing better, kept saying, “How dare you to have treated Emily Gilmore like this!”
It's also not as witty as Gilmore Girls (very few things are), though there are some fantastic lines. Tobin grew on me because of them. The musical numbers, while not always my first choice of songs, were generally strong and the choreography is excellent. (“Fight Song” done entirely in sign language is a special standout.) The tone is often a downer (I mean, the dad is dying, it’s to be expected), though they keep a handle on the mood whiplash reasonably well.
As there’s a whole subplot dedicated to two guys who Zoey is into and they’re both into her (and clearly like and respect each other), I’m going with “polyamory as the solution” unless future canon says otherwise. (I’ve only ever seen that once in a mainstream tv show, in Sense8, but I deeply respect it.)
Regarding Zoey’s powers, I suspect I’m about to give them more thought than any of the writers have, but:
• They are real (they provide Zoey with information she could not otherwise have). “Zoey is hallucinating” doesn’t fit with the information we’re given. The powers, in turn, are clearly magical in nature.
• The song choices are clearly not Zoey’s (she doesn’t even know half the songs) but don’t necessarily emanate from the singer, either. We’ve seen duets from unrelated people that apply to both of them and songs have “followed Zoey around”. There is clearly a third party that is choosing/sending the songs.
• For that matter, Zoey is driven to help the people who sing to her, similar to Sam Beckett’s drive in Quantum Leap or Jaye’s in Wonderfalls. Occasionally, a song portends the future or provides information neither Zoey nor the singer has. This implies that the third party is God/Time/Fate/Whatever, an omniscient entity with defined goals. Zoey is the latest incarnation of “Destiny’s Butt-Puppet.”
I predict that if there’s a second season and they “reveal” anything about the powers, most or all of the above will be contradicted and no explanation given. Also, I strongly suspect Zoey will discover an ability to commune with ghosts, so the dad can continue to occasionally appear.
Overall: This was not a piece of brilliant art, but I enjoyed it. It’s not fluff; there’s a heavy emotional core to this, centering around the degenerative death of a parent. If that’s too much for you, watch a selection of musical numbers on Youtube but give the series a miss.
This has a Glee vibe though with a much more even feel (they waver between comedy and feel-good emotional drama, but without the insanity or black comedy Glee didn’t know when to stop). Included in the cast are Pitch Perfect alum Skylar Astin, Glee alum Alex Newell, Lauren Graham, and apparently Mandy Moore is doing the choreography. While they lack the sheer vocal power Glee could bring to bear (as is the case when half your cast is 50+, rather than 20-somethings cast as teenagers), they do a solid job. (And they did get Bernadette Peters for one episode, which was weird for me because I know her voice but only recognize her from ~40 feet away.)
90% of Lauren Graham’s scenes make me think she shadowed a former boss of mine to prepare for the role, because honestly there’s a stock “high-power businesswoman in a male-dominated field” stereotype that is totally grounded in reality. The other 90%, mind you, make me think Lorelai Gilmore’s life took a turn--she talks about her mother’s funeral at one point, and my brain, despite knowing better, kept saying, “How dare you to have treated Emily Gilmore like this!”
It's also not as witty as Gilmore Girls (very few things are), though there are some fantastic lines. Tobin grew on me because of them. The musical numbers, while not always my first choice of songs, were generally strong and the choreography is excellent. (“Fight Song” done entirely in sign language is a special standout.) The tone is often a downer (I mean, the dad is dying, it’s to be expected), though they keep a handle on the mood whiplash reasonably well.
As there’s a whole subplot dedicated to two guys who Zoey is into and they’re both into her (and clearly like and respect each other), I’m going with “polyamory as the solution” unless future canon says otherwise. (I’ve only ever seen that once in a mainstream tv show, in Sense8, but I deeply respect it.)
Regarding Zoey’s powers, I suspect I’m about to give them more thought than any of the writers have, but:
• They are real (they provide Zoey with information she could not otherwise have). “Zoey is hallucinating” doesn’t fit with the information we’re given. The powers, in turn, are clearly magical in nature.
• The song choices are clearly not Zoey’s (she doesn’t even know half the songs) but don’t necessarily emanate from the singer, either. We’ve seen duets from unrelated people that apply to both of them and songs have “followed Zoey around”. There is clearly a third party that is choosing/sending the songs.
• For that matter, Zoey is driven to help the people who sing to her, similar to Sam Beckett’s drive in Quantum Leap or Jaye’s in Wonderfalls. Occasionally, a song portends the future or provides information neither Zoey nor the singer has. This implies that the third party is God/Time/Fate/Whatever, an omniscient entity with defined goals. Zoey is the latest incarnation of “Destiny’s Butt-Puppet.”
I predict that if there’s a second season and they “reveal” anything about the powers, most or all of the above will be contradicted and no explanation given. Also, I strongly suspect Zoey will discover an ability to commune with ghosts, so the dad can continue to occasionally appear.
Overall: This was not a piece of brilliant art, but I enjoyed it. It’s not fluff; there’s a heavy emotional core to this, centering around the degenerative death of a parent. If that’s too much for you, watch a selection of musical numbers on Youtube but give the series a miss.
